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Seriously, if you are one of those that are gazing at stars after all these years, you should be ashamed of yourself. That fact that we are getting these NR guys right now should have you rolling over laughing in glee. When our coaches said the rankings of RSs mean nothing to them apparently you didn't get the memo.

You don't? So you'd support us going after three more academic risks at a position of need this year so long as they have talent?

It was an awful strategy. And to be honest, I'm not all that optimistic a/b guys who have a history of not getting it done in the classroom (Sawyer, Wideman) all of a sudden locking it down in prep school.

Yes, if the situation leading up to determining the eligibility was the same. All 3 that we would be going after might qualify, be injury free, not get into trouble, etc...all recruits have some level of risk.

We needed DE's that could contribute in 2014, not take several years to develop. We already have guys on the roster who were undersized (for the SEC) DE's that came in last year or the year before (Harris, Johnson, Washington.) If the DE recruit wasn't coming in ready to compete this season for a starting or 2Deep spot, then it wouldn't have mattered. Harris, johnson and Washington will be more physically and mentally ready for '14 than some 2-3 star recruit who was going to UAB that we could've stole at the last minute with an offer. Do you know of DE recruits we slow played. I know it wasn't Andrew Williams, we wanted him and he was paying more attention to uga and aub.

So we took a risk, it was a calculated risk, the info they had before signing day suggested that the guys could make it in, but it didn't happen. Other guys have been on the fence before an qualified, some make it/some don't.

If the guys out of a HS don't qualify and go to Prep or JUCO, it is what it is. SC taking their commitment puts us in a better spot to get them later on if they qualify.

You should be more optimistic about guys getting it done in Prep or JUCO, it doesn't work for everybody, but Quarles, Auguste, Brison Williams, , the Brinkley's, Abu, etc... it worked for them.

We got Wideman and McClain right around NSD, we took Thomas' commitment a couple months before, we wanted Caldwell (but Illinois f**ked him in their attempt to help him and themselves.) Bottom line, we needed guys who could play this season, and it's not like we had a dozen of them lining up at the door to do it. We had tons of DE offers out, we took our shots with the best talent we had a good shot with. There has never been a program to win the SEC or Natty who didn't go through the same thing or take chances on highly rated/academically questionable recruits.

__________________"to be honest with you, if you just graded it out, we won in every phase of the game,” Swinney said. “We lost on the scoreboard."
LOLOLOLOLOL

We have little to no depth at DE this year, so it would be nice to have players who can play. How do you know how much a player will contribute? Sawyer and Wideman may never contribute here, but obviously I hope they do make it here and contribute in a big way. You have to accept the fact that those two may never play here.

As far as marginal talent goes, couldn't our coaches develop that? Everyone on this board tells us that our coaches are great at developing players, so why couldn't they develop a "marginal talent?"

We have 7 DE's on the 2 deep that have been at USC for at least a year, so if our coaches who we all know are great coaches can develop talent then we have depth with out another DE walking on campus much less a true freshman out of high school who may never contribute to the program, your words.
Playing the numbers game and knowing the amount of SR's we had, getting scholarships and LOI's back in 2015 and the unknowns of who is going pro early the coaches took a few shots on kids that were marginal qualifiers, Covertwo and b381 talked about this in the numerous how many recruits will we sign this year discussions, I believe they both said 18 if memory serves me correct, I debated/questioned this a few times and it looks like they could be on the money with non qualifiers. It was even discussed by a few posters that we would "sign and place" a few this year as EE's next year...If 2 in the hand are better than 2 in the bush then a great chance at 2/3 high school prep stars with a year more to recruit is better then 2/3 last second quick signs to fill a scholarship any day of the week, once again to say it is a "dumb strategy" by our coaches is just not smart IMO

I was told that a "situation" down in Gainesville has him having doubts (Joker situation?); also, it is my understanding that he is visiting Cola soon.

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Yes, it's a combination of Joker and the program aids resigning as well as the hotness of the seat Muschamp is on. If they don't make a bowl game this year, Muschamp will be fired by December. That will cause the position coaches to start looking for jobs, recruits will decommit, and we'll get on Ivey's radar more.

__________________"to be honest with you, if you just graded it out, we won in every phase of the game,” Swinney said. “We lost on the scoreboard."
LOLOLOLOLOL

We need more 5 star recruits. Why? Because they win championships.. and they break records. See Clowney/Lattimore. It is not all stargazing. It is legit thinking.

I called all the 5* recruits in the country today....left my name and number....I'm expecting their calls at any moment.

Do you know the average number of offers a 5* player gets......30-40......more would offer but they know they have no chance. Do you also know there are only 15-25 five star players in the country each year. Did you know there are between 5,000 to 6,000 D-1 players in the entire country total. So between 75-100 total five star players in the country......maybe 2-3 are from the state of South Carolina.